Aome ga Kiru
by JustAnotherAuthor64
Summary: A teenager from the countryside once had a simple life of peace and quiet within a small town. All of that ended once a company of soldiers from the Empire came and annihilated his home. Just barely managing to escape with his life, he comes across a powerful but dangerous Teigu. Will he be able to avenge his fallen town without being consumed by his newfound power?
1. Kill the Tragic Beginning

****Author Note:** **Hello and welcome to a new project of mine. I've spent some time working on a character for Akame ga Kill and I think I finally got it solidified enough to present him in a fanfiction. I hope you guys enjoy Aome ga Kiru.****

 **Kill the Tragic Beginning**

 **Year 1020: 4 years from present day**

It all started as a normal day, little different from any other inside Sakai Town. It was a relatively small but thriving town right in the middle of the borders of the Western Nation, Northern Nation and the Empire. Since the town was within the border of all three nations, it was frequently a resting place for travelers planning on heading out to any of those three nations. Additionally, the place was also a hot spot for trading both due to the high quality iron mines that were close by the town as well as unique plants that only grew around the area that were useful for many herbal remedies.

Sitting among the hill just outside of town, looking over the horizon was a teenager who is sixteen years old. He had blue eyes, orange hair with brown roots, with bangs and two longs bangs at the side of his head that reached towards his eyes. He was currently a deep blue linen jacket with black pants and brown shoes. He was currently gazing at the horizon his mind left to wonder.

" _It's quite peaceful here. Outside of the occasional dangerbeast or bandit attack, it's a quiet life. I honestly could stare at the lowering sun like this all day…."_

"Kanshin, dear!"

The young man turned around to see that an orange haired, green eyed women in her mid forties was right behind him.

"Your father wants to come join him in the backyard for training."

"Coming, mom!" Kanshin replied.

You see, there was a bit of a tradition within Sakai Town. Everyone was taught basic combat abilities and to become proficient with at least one weapon of choice. This was to mainly ensure that able bodied people would always be readily available in case of dangerbeasts or bandits. Especially considering that there was high quality iron and herbs within the vicinity of the town, outsiders would not be above attempting to take it for themselves. So the town in response decided to take action to ensure that there would never be a shortage of people that can effectively defend themselves.

It was now time for Kanshin to meet up with his father who was currently teaching him how to be able to handle a sword. He was a man with dark brown hair, blue eyes with a handlebar mustache.

"Are you ready, Kanshin?" he asked.

"Always." Kanshin replied with confidence.

Kanshin was now held a wooden single edged sword and steel buckler in his right and left hand appropriately. Neither wasted any time in starting the drills on parries with the buckler. So far, Kanshin has been doing exceptionally well. He's been among one of the fastest among his age group to pick up on weaponry and has consistently won most sparring contest with most of the children within the town. Within the drills, he has successfully managed to parry ever attack. They soon switches to exercises to counterattacks, more specifically, to be able to create openings with parries and react accordingly. Kanshin's father came at him with fast and unpredictable strikes, but Kanshin was able to quickly spot some patterns and was soon able to parry then counter attack, another parry then another counterattack. The entire process went on for about 10 minutes before Kanshin dropped the wooden sword and steel buckler and switched to a wooden longsword and the training resumed once again.

The father and son training had finished by the time night had fallen and they were now having some water relaxing within the yard.

"You're making great progress my son. I think you right around the same skill level back when I was your age."

"Really?" Kanshin asked.

"Nah..." Kanshin's father said, giving his son a noogie.

"Hey!" Kanshin said in a pouting manner.

"I brought you guys dinner." Kanshin's mother called out bringing the two of them some dangerbeast soup.

"Thank you, honey." Kanshin's father replied. "Oh, that reminds me. I got something to show you."

He disappeared back inside the home for a few moments in order to get whatever it was along with his mother.

" _I wonder what it is that he wanted to show me?"_ Kanshin thought to himself as he enjoyed the dangerbeast soup. About a minute or now later, Kanshin's father had returned with a basket-hilted backsword that was within its scabbard. He sat down near Kanshin and pulled it out, revealing the blade in all of its glory.

"Back when I was your age, this was the weapon of choice that I had used. It had served me well time and time again in many battles." Kanshin's father told. He then pushed the sword's hilt within Kanshin's reach.

"I think it's time I passed down this blade to you. You have proven yourself that you are ready to wield it."

Kanshin eyes lit up in surprise to the news that he just heard. This blade, this beautiful sword, he was just going to give this to him?

"A-Are you serious?" Kanshin asked.

His father simply smiled and nodded. "She's all yours."

Kanshin nervously took the blade and inspected it. It was beautifully crafted, the blade having a great shine to it as though it was just came out of a forge. The basket hilt carried a gold-yellow color with a black padded cloth to make it easier to grip.

"Do you like it?" Kanshin's father asked, handing him the scabbard. "I had one of the blacksmiths touch up on the weapon to effectively make it brand new."

"This is...this is awesome!" Kanshin said joyfully, putting the sword back into its scabbard. He then gave his dad a hug.

"Thanks, dad!"

"You're welcome, Kanshin. Now then, I think it's time we call it a day and get some rest. Since I've now entrusted you with that blade, that means you are ready to begin hunting dangerbeasts as far as the town is concerned, so we got a big day ahead of us tomorrow."

With that bit said, both of them finished up their dinner and returned home. They went to bed shortly after, both excited for the dangerbeast hunt that was to occur tomorrow.

The next morning, Kanshin woke up not to his father calling him, but instead to the town bells. Normally this would signify that the town was under attack so, understandably, Kanshin woke up with both surprise and worry.

" _Dangerbeasts or bandits must be closing in."_ Kanshin thought to himself.

At that moment, Kanshin's father burst into the room. He immediately went to Kanshin saying with desperation and urgency.

"Take the sword I just gave you as well as your buckler and get out this town!"

"W-What? Why? What's going on?"

The town has been attacked a few times before so Kanshin wasn't a stranger to that, but unlike the previous times, Kanshin's father's face was filled with palpable fear.

"No time, you need to get out of here while you still can!"

"But-"

"If you don't get out of here right now you may never do so, do you understand!?" Kanshin's father yelled.

Kanshin was really worried now. He had never seen his dad act like this before. He knew that his father was far from weak. From the stories that he has told him and how Kanshin is quite a bit above his peers because of his father's training, Kanshin knew, without a doubt, that his father has a ton of experience when it comes to combat. Hell, he's been able to tackle and bring home trophies of 2nd and even some 1st class dangerbeasts and come out with little injuries, if any. If he was in such an out of character state, it could only mean that whatever was going on was nothing short of extremely life threatening. To Kanshin, the evidence was mounting that the best course of action was to listen to his dad and leave Kasai Town as soon as possible.

"I-I understand."

"Good." Kanshin's father gave a quick, but tight hug. "Be safe, now go!"

With that Kanshin bolted for his buckler and newly acquired backsword and parted ways with his father.

As soon as he made it outside, he immediately understood why his father was so worried. The town was under siege and whoever it was responsible was far more adequately equipped than the average bandits. The many of the town's buildings were either destroyed or set ablaze by catapult fire. There were already a multitude of corpse or both townsfolk and the attackers alike. Gunshots and arrow fire could be heard both close by and in the distance. The town had literally become a battlefield for no real adequately explained reason. Kanshin, not wanting to disobey his dad, swiftly headed towards the back exit of the town. If the place was to be attacked, it would likely be one of the places that the soldiers would be the most likely to avoid simply due to the steep cliff.

He had steadily started to make his way down the cliff as swiftly and carefully as possible. As soon as he managed to get onto stable land, several people garbed in gamberson and mail armor made themselves visible within the cliff's clearing.

"Colonel Torio was right, someone's trying to escape!" One of them said.

Kanshin had recognized the symbol that these people were wearing. It was a heater shield with a dragon surrounding it. These soldiers belonged to the Empire. But what were they doing here of all places? As far as the known laws are concerned, the denizens of Sakai village haven't broken any laws and if they did, they sure as hell weren't informed of such.

But Kanshin had no time to ponder that as the first soldier had already began to close the distance. Kanshin quickly pulled out his backsword and buckler and prepared to intercept to the warrior. The older soldier had charged almost recklessly very clearly underestimating Kanshin. As the soldier's sword came down to try and kill him, Kanshin easily parried it and before the soldier could retaliate, Kanshin shoved his backsword right into his left eye socket, killing him almost instantly.

The other two soldiers, realizing that Kanshin was an adept fighter, decided to come charging in together this time. Kanshin managed to sidestep a mace swing from one and shortly after being forced to block an axe from the other. With him now outnumbered and the soldiers being a lot smarter than the previous one, Kanshin was now on the defensive.

" _Damn, they are not making anywhere near as many openings as the last one."_

Forced to dodge yet another axe swing, that's when Kanshin noticed that their legs were not very well protected. The guy with the mace took another swing at Kanshin. Taking advantage of the fact that the mace wielder could not easily stop the momentum of his weapon, Kanshin ducked and managed to get his backsword at his calf cutting them open. Kanshin, no longer having to worry about a two on one fight, easily managed to parry the incoming axe and his sword was now heading towards the axe man's throat, victory all but assured.

Or so Kanshin thought. Just before the blade could land the killing blow, he felt his sword arm being pierced by something. Kanshin was confused for a moment, he was certain that nobody else was around and yet he felt the sensation of getting it. Once he had realized who or more specifically what had stabbed him, the pain registered and Kanshin gave out a loud scream. His sword arm was stabbed with what looked like to be a stone spike that just came out of the ground.

"You guys are completely and utterly pathetic!" a women's voice had shouted from where the soldiers came from.

A women in her early twenties had come out from there. She had dark purple hair in the shape of a bob cut with matching eyes. She also was fully garbed in plate armor barring the usual helmet. She, just like the soldiers had the exact same symbol of the Empire, but on the opposite shoulder, she had what looked like to be an officer's insignia engraved into the armor.

"Colonel Torio, ma'am!" The axe soldier shouted, immediately turning towards her and saluting her. "I-"

The soldier didn't get a chance to finish his sentence as the colonel immediately kicked the soldier away from her.

"I've spent an immense amount of time training you imbeciles and you let some backwater country kid beat you!?"

The colonel took a step closer towards Kanshin, who was desperately trying to free himself from the stone spike that was lodged into his arm, but only successfully managing to only further injure himself. They locked eyes for a moment before a smirk appeared on the colonel's face. The spike was pulled almost instantly back into the earth and right after, she had delivered a powerful strike to Kanshin's ribcage with her knee.

Kanshin easily felt several ribs crack at the impact. He was tossed several feet and had dropped his backsword as he flew. Torio had noticed this and picked up the weapon to inspect it.

" _This thing's got a surprising amount of craftsmanship. Far greater than what I would expect from a bunch of hicks."_

Kanshin was barely conscious by the time he managed to get his barrings after being hit. He was having a hard time breathing with his ribs cracked. If she hadn't punctured a lung, she must have been very dangerously close to doing so. Kanshin saw the Torio standing over him with the weapon his father gave him before his strength had finally left him.

Shortly after Kanshin had fallen to Torio, the town had been easily overrun. Plenty of the townsfolk had been killed, but a rather unusual amount of them had been left alive and unharmed for the moment. Only the attackers had any clue as to why that is. While the denizens of Sakai Town didn't exactly know the whole story, from what the travelers that were coming from the capital had foretold the townsfolk, they knew the Empire wasn't exactly renowned for its courtesy to adversaries or those outside the Capital's walls. Once the remaining people that were captured were herded to the center of Sakai Town and Colonel Torio had made her declaration.

"Citizens of Sakai Town! You have violated Imperial law by selling and trading weaponry and other goods to known enemies of the Empire. As of right you are all under arrest and are to carry out your sentence effective immediately. As of today, Sakai Town is now under control of the Empire and is a Sanctuary Town!"

Many of the soldiers cheered hearing the news. The citizens were clueless as to what the colonel was talking about. Only after the day had come to a close did they realize just what kind of horror was soon to be unleashed upon them.

 **One year later**

One year. One long, agonizing year had passed ever since the Colonel Torio and her company of soldiers had attacked and officially made Sakai Town into a Sanctuary Town. To the soldiers, it was an easy life. A free food, supplies and plenty of women to sleep with. To the townsfolk, it was a living nightmare. Every man was worked to the bone to procure the ore that was within the mine close by to the town. It was common for many men to be driven to death by exhaustion working within the mines. For the women, they were forced to service the soldiers as maids and waitresses. Rape was a frequent occurrence, regardless if they complied with the soldiers demands. The children were also subjected to similarly horrendous crimes. Many of them were evicted from the town, to be sold off as slaves. Those that were still around were put in the same category as the grown men and women. During the time, there were several brave souls that attempted to fight back against the occupying soldiers. The lucky ones were simply stabbed, shot or beaten to death. The less fortunate ones were tortured for hours on end, it could be anything from receiving lashes from whips designed to tear into flesh to being flayed and doing things like pouring alcohol or acid to make the execution be both as painful and long lasting as possible. Some of the more sadistic soldiers would frequently either involve the rebel's loved ones or worse, force the rebel to watch as the people the care about being tortured or killed in front them, powerless to stop the soldiers.

Kanshin himself was still around the village and while he was covered in plenty of injuries due to the beatings and whippings he received, he was still alive and kicking. Fortunately for him, both of his parents had made it as well despite the physical and emotional pain both of them were in. More often than not, they were all separated from one another. The only real time that they could be together was during the night when the majority of the soldiers were sound asleep. They held onto to held onto one another during this unjust occupation, telling each other that it would all be okay, ignorant of the fate that awaited them.

The next day, soldiers had come per usual, forcibly grabbing Kanshin and his family. However, instead of the mines, where Kanshin and his father were usually dragged off to, they instead were being hauled to the center of town and they weren't alone. The entirety of the remaining population of Sakai Town was present, all of them were kneeling by weapon point and in front of the crowd of people was no other than Colonel Torio, the leader of the company that invaded this town. After everyone was gathered, that's when she made her announcement.

"Citizens of Sakai Town! Since you have violated Imperial law and no longer have the means of being able to pay up in neither iron or gold, by my right as a colonel of the Imperial Army. I hereby sentence you all to death!" she gleefully announced.

Everything seemed to slow down for the remaining townsfolk. Some could only briefly hear the sounds of stabbing and gunshots. Others didn't get a chance to hear anything as they dropped dead. As for Kanshin, he once again felt the familiar sensation of being pierced. It almost felt like someone had poked him from both his back and front. He looked to his chest and realized that he had been shot. By the time the pain had started to register within him, his sense had dulled and darkness had swiftly overtaken him again.

With the mass execution done, the soldiers had began to toss the bodies into the mass grave that they had already built for the resisters. The whole process took about a half hour with the majority of the soldiers working on it. They were starting to prepare to torch the bodies and the entire town with them when a courier showed up to deliver a message to the Colonel Torio.

"Colonel Torio, ma'am. Orders from the Emperor that you are to return to the Capital at once." The courier declared.

"Tch. Damn annoyance, undoubtedly it's either because of the Prime Minister or that old meatsack Budo. What a pain..." Torio muttered.

"Alright men! Change of plans! Leave the bodies, gear up and let's move out! We got orders to make our way back to the Capital!"

With her word, the soldiers stopped what they were doing at once and quickly grabbed everything they had and all the goods that they could carry with them. By the end of the hour, the company was ready to move out and wasted no time in leaving the now desolate town.

...

...

...

"….uuuuuuurrrrggg..."

"hhhuuuuhh…..?"

Kanshin had woke up several hours after the company had left. Despite how weak he felt, he could still feel the bullet holes that were created from him getting shot. Once he managed to get a bearing of his surroundings, he realized that he was laying with one of the mass grave among rotting corpses. He began to crawl his way back up from the grave. Thankfully, the soldiers were long gone at this point. Despite the sorrow and anguish that spread into his mind, his survival instincts took hold of him. He knew that if he wanted to continue to live, he would have to get his injury treated and soon. Kanshin headed back to his house, trying to see if there was anything that the soldiers left behind. To his luck, among the ruined remains, he had managed to find some spare herbs that he could use to compile a disinfectant. After making it, he used some water and cloth that the soldiers likely couldn't take with them to treat his bullet wounds as best as he could.

While he still felt weak, at the very least, he longer had to worry about the wound being infected. With his life no longer being in jeopardy, he could only look in despair as he looked throughout the wreckage of his town. There was nothing left. The place now looked like a ghost town and everyone that he grew up with; his family, his friends, the other townsfolk that he had come to know for the past 16 years of his life, all of it was gone. He, understandably, broke down and began crying seeing everything that he ever valued was taken from him all in one fell swoop. He was so caught up in his anguish that he didn't even notice the presence of a being that was behind him.

The presence in question couldn't really be defined by anything most folks would be familiar with. It certainly wasn't human but nothing like any type of dangerbeast that people would recognize. It was instead some kind of black, humanoid-shaped incorporeal mist. There was only one thing that was for certain. Whatever it was, it was malicious.

" _Yes. Another soul filled with despair and misery that is ripe for the taking…...wait. This is …. hah, hah, hah. It's been a long time since I've last encountered a host anywhere near this level of compatibility. Perhaps he will be far more interesting than the last one."_

He began to enter Kanshin's body through all of his orifices. The process was swift and silent and Kanshin was more once, unawares until the being was already inside him.

In the middle of his weeping, Kanshin felt a dark presence enter him, but he didn't care. He just wanted to be left alone, he wanted his family and town back. The presence Kanshin felt vanished for a second before it happened. Kanshin's mind was assault by a cacophony of emotions. Sadness, hatred, fear, despair, agony. They were all there relentlessly tormenting him, threatening to consume his mind.

" _W-What the….what is this..?"_ Kanshin thought, trying to keep himself together.

" _You will be my new host, mortal."_ a deep, dark voice replied.

" _Who are you?"_ Kanshin internally replied.

" _That is irrelevant to you. Now…...submit!"_ the voiced harshly commanded.

As soon as those words were spoken. The emotions got even stronger, tearing away at Kanshin's sanity. He was having a harder time defending himself from the mental assault.

"Stop! Stop it!"Kanshin commanded out loud.

" _You will submit! You will submit or you will die!"_ the voice growled out, further strengthening the emotions.

"AAAAAAAAGHHHHHHHHHHH!"Kanshin screamed out.

The voices were equivalent to having several high caliber guns fired right at one's eardrums. His entire nervous system was now set ablaze as the emotions and the associated voices that came with them continued to compound, whittling at Kanshin's resolve.

" _Make it stop….make it stop…."_ Kanshin began to plead as he started to lose himself.

" _Pitiful….and here I thought that he would be an interesting host to bind with after losing his pathetic town."_ the voice condescendingly stated. _"I'll just kill this fool and move onto the next one…..huh?"_

The being's train of thought was interrupted as Kanshin gained a second wind and began to push back against the negative thoughts and emotions.

" _Pathetic? My town was not pathetic! I'm not going to fall here. Not here, not now. Not when I just managed to survive against all odds! I will not FALL!"_

As Kanshin began to fight back, he started to become surrounded by a mix of black and dark purple energy. It was circling around him like a mist or an aura. After about a minute, he gave out one final shout and all of that energy that he gathered was let loose into a powerful burst of energy.

 **Somewhere along the road to the Capital**

Colonel Torio and her company where making their back towards the Capital when they all felt the enormous power. It was coming from the direction of what was once Kasai village. None of them could quite explain but if they had to go with a gut feeling it felt like...darkness...like all the joy and light of life had just extinguished and was replaced by unending waves of hatred and terror. Not even Torio for all of her strength was not unfazed by this new feeling. And just as it looked like it was about to get worse, it vanished as quickly as it came.

" _What the hell was that!? It came from the direction of the town that we just came from, but everyone within that village should be dead...no, even if someone somehow_ did _manage to make it out alive, I still have my orders."_ Torio thought.

"What do we do, Colonel?" A captain had asked, not sure as to how to response to the phenomenon.

"We keep moving, we have our orders." Torio decreed, deciding to keeping back to the Capital.

 **At the Imperial Palace**

The current Emperor Makoto, Prime Minister Honest and Generals Budo and Esdese were currently within in the throne room inside the palace. The Emperor was sitting on this throne. Prime Minister Honest was standing just beside them. And both Esdese and Budo were kneeling before the Emperor. They were all gathered there because the Emperor(with the suggestion of the Prime Minister) had summoned the generals to deal with an ongoing issue with rebels that were occurring as of late.

"Generals Budo and Esdese. It has come to my attention that there have been problems with some rebels as of late. I have called you here in order to suggest some ideas from military standpoint on how to handle them. Isn't that right, Prime Minister Honest?" the Emperor decreed.

"Yes, that's correct my Emperor." Honest confirmed, with a less than altruistic look. "There have been quite a few citizens that have been heavily upset with how things have been run recently, so with the Emperor's permission, I have decided to arrange this meeting to discuss some ideas as to how to get rid of them."

"Let the weaklings do whatever they so wish. I say we shouldn't waste our time going after them." Esdese boldly declared.

Honest, Makoto and Budo all gave Esdese looks of both curiosity and disbelief.

"The weak will always grumble and grovel against the strong. Besides, these rebels have no level of organization or any level or strength that would even register as threat to the Empire. For now, I'd say we keep an eye on them and let them do what they want. Let them reveal themselves and make themselves known to the public because the minute they think they got any ground, we'll crush them!" Esdese continued.

Honest simply chuckled in sadistic glee hearing General Esdese suggestion.

"I like the way you think, General Esdese. Quite an efficient strategy too. To lure the rebels into a false sense of security and then to destroy them all at once instead of actively hunting them all down like rats in a maze."

General Budo didn't bother to comment. He just stood there silently, trying to take in as much information as he could.

 _"I hate that I can't do anything. As long as that disgusting pig has the Emperor's ears, nothing I say to him about Honest will mean anything. Now with these rebels showing, it's just going to set me back even further, making my plans on getting rid of both Honest and Esdese even more problematic. Because now, not only do I have to worry about dealing with them both without having the Emperor suspecting foul play at hand, but now our attention is going to be divided on dealing with the rebels instead of dealing with the problems the Prime Minister is causing."_

Before the meeting could continue, all four of them felt a presence. It was faint and it could barely be felt, despite that, it was there are it felt like a miasma of lifelessness and pure, unfiltered hatred. Despite its origins not being anywhere near the capital, the presence could still be felt all the way from within the throne room. It was almost insane that the atmosphere was becoming heavy even though whatever was causing the change in atmosphere was an absurd distance away. Then suddenly, it disappeared in an instant, as though the past 30 seconds never happened.

"What was that?" the Emperor asked, being as clueless as ever.

" _Oh no….it can't be..."_ Honest thought, losing his appetite recalling what that was.

" _No…..it has found a new wielder!?"_ Budo thought with a worried expression, being familiar with that feeling.

" _That's quite the display of power. I've never felt anything like this before. I'm can't wait to meet the one who wields it."_ Esdese gleefully smiled, curious as to what kind of being could hold such power.

 **Back at Sakai Town**

After the massive burst of power, Kanshin feel to knees, exhausted both from the power he just emitted and from battling the emotions prior.

" _Kanshin, was it? You have surprised me. You've gone beyond my expectations, mortal. From now on, you will be able to wield my power to lay waste to your enemies."_ The voice commended.

"Who are you?" Kanshin asked again.

" _You may call me Uratamashi, mortal. I am what you would call a Teigu."_

"Teigu? As in a legendary weapon forged by the first Emperor?" Kanshin responded in shock.

" _That's correct. And for the record, you don't need to speak to talk with me. I am bound to you now so I can hear you thoughts just a clearly as any voice."_ Uratamashi answered.

" _Now then, it would wise if you gathered as much as you can from this place and get going. The dangerbeasts are liable to pick up the scent of corpses at any time now and will be all over the place."_

Kanshin had realized that he was right. He had to get out of here and quickly. As he was now, there's no way that he would stand a chance against if dangerbeast decided to make their way here.

Kanshin began to salvage what he could from the remains of his hometown and began to make his way out of Sakai Town. Once he turned to leave Sakai Town, he didn't look back.

 **Author's Note: And that's it for the first chapter. I hope you enjoyed and I shall see you guys within 2 to 3 weeks from now.**


	2. Kill the Time Skip

****Review Replies:****

 **LazyWriterDude:** **Yes, he has been. Which will later come into play. As for when the events transpired, it starts in 1020 and the events of Akame ga Kill take place in 1024. It's good to have you back and on another story of mine :)**

 **Kill the Time Skip**

 **1021: Three years prior to present day.**

Several hours had passed since Kanshin had made his way out of Sakai Town. It was closing in nighttime so right now, he was in the middle of a clearing within a forest, staring at the campfire that he had made.

" _I don't get it…...I should be more sad or angry that I had recently lost everything and yet…...I don't feel anything. Just…...emptiness."_ Kanshin pondered.

" _It comes with package, mortal. You will naturally be a little out of tune of your emotions. You_ will _need to be able to keep a firm grip on them when using my power."_ Uratamashi explained.

" _You keep calling me mortal. That implies that you must be eternal or at the very least been alive for a very long time."_ Kanshin deduced.

" _You are correct. I was once a dangerbeast that wielded power beyond the imagination of most. If my knowledge from what I have gathered from my previous wielders is correct, I've been around much longer than the time of the First Emperor."_

" _Woah."_ Kanshin thought, astonished.

" _Yes. Admittedly, I didn't wield raw power in the same way as some of the other Super Class Dangerbeasts. But what I lacked in raw strength and durability, I made up in elusiveness and difficulty to kill. Not to mention, with every mortal whose life I drained, I only grew in power. To be honest, I even managed to get to a point where I could have easily have wiped out the entire Empire with the my power. Especially considering that unlike many other dangerbeasts, I am fully sentient."_

" _Really?"_ Kanshin said with awe and fear. " _But wait, if you really did wield that kind of strength, why didn't you?"_

" _Boredom." Uratamashi simply put it._

" _Boredom?"_

" _Yes. I am a creature of destruction, mortal. While in theory, I could destroy everything around me all in one fell swoop, but then what? What purpose does a being of destruction have when there is nothing left to destroy?"_

Kanshin now understood where he was coming from. It was a bit similar being a blacksmith during a time where nobody either can't or is unwilling to learn how to use weapons. Sure, you could create them, but it wouldn't mean anything since nobody could make use of the weapons you built.

" _Ultimately, that's why I decided to play possum to the First Emperor and let him make me into one of the Teigus. To see what would happen and if things would be interesting. I still retain quite a bit of my freedom and while I may not be as powerful as I once was, that potential can still be reached with a strong host."_

" _That's why you picked me?" Kanshin thought to himself. "But I'm not that strong. I mean, I've learned a few things in combat and have been able to beat anyone back in my village."_

" _I'm not referring to as you are now, but what you can become. I am aware that if you tried to go against anyone with serious power as you are now, you will die."_ Uratamashi declared with no hesitation. " _That's why I am going to assist you."_

" _Huh?"_

" _I already told you, did I not? My power is now yours to command. Because I am now a part of you, all of the experience and skills that I developed from my previous wielders will be passed down to you as you train and grow over time. And that doesn't even account for the unique powers that I wielded back when I was a dangerbeast."_

Kanshin's eyes lit up in awe and curiosity as to what it was that he could now do, Uratamashi did say that he did have the ability to drain life to grow stronger, but Kanshin was curious as to what else he could do.

His thoughts were interrupted as Kanshin heard a noise of brush being moved. Regrettably, he wasn't armed, so he could only stand there and wait to see what would come out from the bushes.

The beast had big horns that started from sides of its head to meet towards the middle of its face, thick yellow fur and three blood red eyes.

" _Oh crap. A Jackaleo...and me with any weapons."_ Kanshin thought to himself.

Kanshin side stepped out of the way as the Jackaleo tried to pounce him.

" _This is the only one that's around, it must have picked up the scent of corpses due to you being among them for hours."_ Uratamashi pointed out.

" _If you got any ideas oh how to deal with this thing, now's the time."_ Kanshin thought out dodging out the way of another swipe, but not without getting a minor scratch on his left arm.

" _You have my power, you have the anger within you. Unleash it!"_

Kanshin felt it almost instantly once Uratamashi had spoken. He felt angry, he felt rage. But it was different than before. It felt a lot more menacing, malicious and much more powerful. Kanshin let his instincts guide him. Just before the Jackaleo could pounce on him, he balled his hand into a fist and sent to towards the Jackaleo. A dark purple beam was sent towards the Jackaleo, narrowly missing vitals and ensuring that the dagnerbeast would have a hard time getting back up. Kanshin stared at his fist wondering what the hell just happened.

" _That's only a taste of what you can do."_ Uratamashi explained. " _Your anger, your grudges, your hatred. They can all be used as a fuel source for your newfound power. There's one last trick I will show you for tonight. Go to the Jackaleo and kneel close by it and I shall explain."_

Kanshin did exactly as Uratamashi instructed, getting close to the very badly wounded Jackaleo. It was still moving around, even to the untrained eye, it was clear it was in no shape to move, nevermind make another attempt to attack. As Kanshin kneeled down, he felt another sensation, this one was coming from the dangerbeast itself. It felt weak and it was getting weaker by the second.

" _You can feel it can't you? That's the dangerbeasts life force. All you need to do is place your hands on it and you can drain the rest of it, effectively killing it. Give it a shot, use your willing to call forth the life force to you."_ Uratamashi elaborated.

With those words, Kanshin placed his hand onto the Jackaleo. With a simple internal command, just as Uratamashi said, he felt the sensation weakening even faster than before and it was going towards Kanshin. Upon taking a closer look, Kanshin saw that there was a red energy transferring from the Jackaleo to him.

" _It's movements have now stopped and I'm feeling…..invigorated?"_ Kanshin thought.

" _That's right. For every creature that you drain, you recover your own strength. There are quite a few other abilities that you can use and you can expand on the two I've just shown you over time, but that will be for another day. For now, I'd it would be a good time to get the dangerbeast cooked."_

 _*Growls*_

Kanshin just remembered that he hadn't eaten all day. He's been so busy getting out the village and finding a safe place to set up camp that he'd all but forgotten the fact that he needs to eat. With this revelation, Kanshin had simultaneously discovered a second very important fact.

"How the hell I am supposed to prepare this without any tools!?" Kanshin shouted out into the night.

* * *

 **Year 1024: Three years later…**

At a decent sized town that was close to the Western Border of the Empire, a group of about 20 laborers were making their way back from the forest on their journey of collecting supplies. They would usually go out into the wilderness to collect wood, iron, water and a few other miscellaneous supplies for their town, typically accompanied by a group of capable warriors as an escort.

As the group was heading back, the feet below them began to rumble. They worryingly began to look around, checking their surroundings and comrades to see if they were alright. The rumbling continued to get worse and the group had their footing thrown off balance. The ground began to crack open and out from it appeared to be a giant worm. The worm had a thick hide, had a color similar to sand and it was at least 100 meters high and about 20 meters wide.

"S-Sandwurm!" One of the warriors yelled out.

The warriors pulled themselves together to try and regroup and get the laborers to safety. Unfortunately, several of the capable fighters and laborers were pretty badly injured, crushed by the debris that the Sandwurm had caused. Furthermore, while the warriors were far from pushovers but, they were not equipped to deal with a Disaster Class Dangerbeast. The Sandwurm turned towards the direction of the town the laborers had come from and let out a feral roar. The laborers could only watch in horror as it looked the creature was going to head towards their town and obliterate it.

 _Slash_

It happened almost instantly. A few brief flashes of dark purple light occurred and the beast stopped moving. No noise, no further movement. It just stopped dead in its tracks. After a few seconds had passed, the Sandwurm began to fall apart, having been cut into several large pieces. The dangerbeast pieces began to fall from the sky falling in several different locations. The Sandwurm's head was about to fall on top of some of the injured people, the group could only watch helplessly as the head was getting closer to crushing the injured people.

 _Slash_

Yet another brief flash of dark purple light occurred and the head that was descending was cut in half. Only this time, the townsfolk were able to see a blur of the person who had cut the head _._ The person had slide onto the ground and immediately whipped the blood dripping off of his longsword before sheathing it and turning around to face the group.

The laborers' savior looked to be a young man in his twenties, clad in deep blue, thick gamberson, black thick brown boots and gloves. He also carried a hiking backpack on him, indicating that he was a person traveling a considerable distance. He also had orange hair with with blue eyes. He turned towards the laborers, with a stoic expression on his face.

"Are you guys alright?" He said in a nearly dead tone.

"Y-Yeah, thank you for saving us and our town."

"Save your thanks for once you are all safely back home." The man coldly replied.

The laborers shivered at how cold and distant his tone was, but despite that, they knew he had a point. Accompanied with this young warrior, the laborers with their helpers had managed to get all of the injured and the goods that they were carrying with them safely back to town. During the entire time, the young warrior had stayed quiet and remained stoic, not once changing this demeanor. Nobody really wanted to say anything to him. Some out of respect for the person's privacy, others simply out of fear of the person that effortlessly took down a Disaster Class Dangerbeast.

Once they had reached the town and made it inside the gates, they were all greeted with a welcoming party. Almost the entire town had either seen or hear the giant Dangerbeast at a distance and had seen it fall apart almost as quickly as it had shown up and many curious people were waiting for the crew that usually brings supplies to the town to explain what had happened. After many of the townsfolk had greeted their family members and colleagues back in open arms, many of them had turned their attention towards the person who had, accordingly to them, had single-handily taken down that Sandwurm.

The chief among them is what looked like to be the an elder of the town. He was a man in his early fifties. A bit chubby with long brown, wild hair. He had brown eyes with current mix of both concern and joy on his face.

"Are you the one that took out the Sandwurm?" The man asked.

The young warrior simply nodded.

"Are you perchance associated with the Empire?" The asked another question.

The young man retained his silence, but shook his head to the man's question.

The man beamed at the responded and replied.

"Then I welcome to Harano Town. I am Tadashi, the current major. May I have the name of the one who had saved my people and this town?" Tadashi welcomed.

"It's Kanshin." Kanshin finally spoke up, saying the first words he had spoken to the townsfolk.

"Well Kanshin, you have my most profound gratitude for saving our men here. Is there anything that we can give you as far as a means of showing gratitude?"

Kanshin paused for a moment, giving some thought before answering back.

"Does your town have a blacksmith?"

"Yes we do. He and the shop that he runs with his apprentices is just a bit further north from the gates here." Tadashi answered.

"Then, if you are offering anything, I'd like to put in a request to the blacksmith and have some food and a place to stay in the meantime." Kanshin said.

"Of course. We'd be more than happy to accommodate you." Tadashi happily replied.

Tadashi gave a bit of wave towards the crowd and they began to disperse, going back to their daily activities. Tadashi had motioned Kanshin to follow him. The two of them began to walk their way towards the blacksmith. Taking a look around, Kanshin noticed that the town itself didn't look that much different from others that a traveler would come across. But, it did have two noteworthy points to it. The first was that it was built within a wide open plain, the second was it's quaint and peaceful both appearance and overall atmosphere to it, something that was quite different when compared to so many other locations that Kanshin has visited for the past 3 years.

"So, what brings you here to Harano Town?" Tadashi asked.

"Nothing in particular really." Kanshin replied. "It's just coincidence that I arrived here, I'm just a lone traveler."

"Really?" Tadashi said, a bit shocked. "Then I must say, you must be the best coincidence that this town has had in a long time."

Kanshin simply nodded at Tadashi statement.

Tadashi didn't want to admit it, but Kanshin was unnerving him quite a bit. He had yet show any visible sign of change in emotion and the entire time he has spoken, it's been in a monotone voice. Perhaps the thing that made him both fearful and worried for the young man was his eyes. One look at his blue eyes was all it took for Tadashi to guess that he is someone who had gone through hell and has somehow managed to come back, but not without being scarred.

The two of them eventually managed to make their way towards Harano Town's market district. The place had multiple stands and building which had clear labels of various stores. The two of them strolled there way through the market district until they stopped at the town's forge. The place looked to be manned by several people. A receptionist which can be seen manning the counter, the blacksmith was closer to the forge, tutoring and instructing his apprentices.

"Mayor Tadashi? What brings you here?" The receptionist asked.

"This young gentleman would like to put in a request." Tadashi said, pushing Kanshin forward a little bit.

"Yes. I would like to have a sword and buckler with these particular requirements." Kanshin said, pulling out a piece of paper.

The receptionist took a moment to read the piece of paper before replying back.

"Alright, we don't have that many request in right now, so we will be able to get this done in a short span of time. Swing by tomorrow morning and the weapons will be ready for you." The receptionist simply said, putting the note away.

"Ok, then. Let me show you to the inn that we have here for visitors." Tadashi guided Kanshin towards the inn. Once they stepped in, Kanshin took a look around. It didn't look all that fancy. But it was a fairly quiet place and it's peaceful atmosphere would suit a traveler looking to rest his weary bones perfectly.

"Oh? Mayor Tadashi? What can I do for you?" The receptionist asked, recognizing the mayor.

"I would like to arrange for this young gentleman to have a room for today." Tadashi declared, patting his hand at Kanshin's shoulder.

"That can be done, will it just be for today?" The receptionist asked.

"Yes. Just for today." Kanshin answered.

"Very well, enjoy your stay and don't worry about any fees." The receptionist said, giving Kanshin a set of room keys.

"I'll be in the mayor's office if you need me." Tadashi explained. "There are plenty of signposts that can point you to the right direction if you don't know where to find it."

"Got it."

With that, Tadashi had left the inn, leaving Kanshin to his own devices. Kanshin himself decided that since there was still a bit of time left in the day, he headed to his newly acquired room to set down the gear he had on him and decided to explore the town for a bit.

This place reminded him of home by a good amount. Granted, Harano Town was actually bit bigger than Sakai Town and had quite a few more people, but nevertheless. From the children that he could going up and down the streets, to the various stores that were around to the handful of militia that he would see patrolling the town, it reminded him a lot of home and if it were possible to see past the stoic expression that Kanshin carried, he would be downtrodden. He continued to wander around the town to sightseeing, occasionally giving a wave or stopping to chat to some folk who had recognized him.

Dusk was approaching and seeing that, Kanshin decided to head back towards the inn. He found his way to get on top of the inn's roof. He sat down and stared at the sun as it began to descend just like he did years ago. He never really understood why, but doing so always seemed to calm him. Even if it did remind him of what he lost.

" _I don't know if you can hear this but….I promise you that the ones who ended your life will not walk away. I will ensure that your deaths will be avenged!"_ Kanshin thought to himself. With that declaration made and his resolve renewed, he decide to turn in for the night.

Kanshin woke up at around dawn, an instinct that he developed over the years as a result of constantly being in the wilderness. He took a look outside and saw that several people were already awake, so Kanshin went ahead and got his gear and headed outside. Not wanting to stick around longer than necessary, Kanshin went to the town's market district to resupply before making his way to the forge.

"Ah. Kanshin was it?" The receptionist spoke up upon seeing Kanshin approach. "You've been quite the talk of the town."

"I just wanted to see if the request is finished yet." Kanshin said, getting straight to the reason he's here.

The receptionist was a little off put by the coldness of his customer, but nevertheless, he motioned the blacksmith to come forward. The blacksmith came forward, putting the buckler and the new sword out. He picked up the items from the counter, revealing them to be duplicates of the buckler and backsword he had used prior to the occupation of Sakai Town.

" _It may not be the same sword that my father gave me, but at least I'll have it to remember him by until I can get back the original one."_ Kanshin pondered, taking his newly forged items.

"Thank you. You have no idea as to how much this means to me." Kanshin said, taking his weapons and putting them away.

"It's the least we can do for you after what you did for us." The blacksmith replied. "May it serve you well in your travels."

With that said, Kanshin began to walk away from the forge and began to make this way towards the town's exit. Just before he managed to make this way towards the gates, he ran into Major Tadashi once again.

"You're up pretty early." Tadashi said. "So, you're really heading out?"

"Yeah. I've got a place I need to head out to and the sooner I get going, the better." Kanshin answered.

"I see. That's a shame." Tadashi said, a little saddened. "You know, if you do decide that you need a place to settle, you are always welcome to return. I'm pretty sure that many would be happy to have a person such as powerful as yourself around as well as one that they know would protect them."

Kanshin then gave off the slightest hint of a grin. "I appreciate the offer, but before I think about finding a place to settle, I have some unfinished business that needs to be dealt with first."

"I understand." Tadashi said, feeling a little bit better. "Well, good luck on whatever it is you plan on doing and be careful out there."

"I will and thanks." Kanshin responded.

With those parting words, Kamshin left Harano Town, keeping the town and its people in mind for later reference.

* * *

 **A few days later…**

Kanshin been on the road for a few days ever since he has stopped at Harano Town. After pretty easily dealing with that Sandwurm quite easily, he decided it was finally time. Time to make the individuals responsible for the destruction of his home pay.

" _If the directions I got from the last place that stopped at are of any indication, I should be only one more days worth of travel away."_ Kanshin remembered.

As Kanshin was traveling along the road, he saw within the distance several people that looked to be a group of 20 soldiers. It was noticeable due to the armor that they were wearing. The entire group was in plate armor, one of them was also carrying a flag that was carrying the symbol of the Empire. Kanshin frowned immediately upon seeing them and proceeded to toss aside his backpack upon noticing them. He then stepped closer to the group of soldiers stopping in the middle of the road, his sword hand close to the hilt of the longsword. The officer that was in charge of the group had decided to temporary halt the crew, hoping to get this little man out of the way.

"Move along, citizen! You're interfering with business with the Imperial Army!"

"Where are you going?" Kanshin replied. The tone catching the officer and the troops behind him off guard. The way this person spoke to them, it wasn't a question. It was a demand.

"That doesn't concern you citizen. Now get out of the way!" The captain asserted.

Kanshin simply responded by drawing his longsword and stated "I asked you a question."

The captain, who was understandably smug about some stranger trying to pull a weapon against an officer and one that had an entire squad of soldiers with him, got off his horse to address the arrogant traveler. Some of the soldiers were a tad bit worried, not because of what the stranger had said, but how he said it. There was almost no emotion in it at all.

"We are going to Harano Town and claim it under the name of the Empire." The captain proudly announced with dark grin on his face. "They have been getting help from the Western Nations, enemies of the Empire and we are going to put them in their place. Remind them who is really in charge."

"No. You won't." Kanshin simply said. "You and your men are going to abandon any plans you had for Harano Town and return to the capital at once."

"What did you say?" The captain questioned, unsure as to how to respond to the young man that was trying to command him.

"Maybe I didn't make myself clear the first time." Kanshin said as he got into a Wrath Guard stance. "You and your men will turn around and go back to the Capital or you will all die."

As Kanshin finished his sentence, everyone had felt a sensation coming from Kanshin. It felt very similar to killing intent, but there was something else about. It was then that everyone realized that Kanshin and his weapon was surrounded by a dark purple aura. To the soldiers, it was though Kanshin was covered by unending amounts of pure, unfiltered hatred. Most of the soldier's confidence had completely disappeared and was replaced with raw fear as they were starting to think that the person before them wasn't a man, but rather a monster. Even the captain was having a hard time keeping his composure, seeing that display of killing intent. He desperately tried to grab onto his sword in a vain attempt to try and defend himself from his attacker. That was all Kanshin needed to see.

In the blink of an eye, the captain was sent flying into the air. Or rather, his torso was sent flying, having been cut clean in half, right through his armor. And before any of the soldiers could have a chance to so much as scream, much less try to retaliate, another flash of a bright dark purple light had occurred.

To about 99 percent of the population, they would have only seen the flash of light. To the remaining few, they would have seen the slashes that Kanshin had performed. He was stationary the whole time, but the dark purple aura that had surrounded his longsword had actually manifested into a wave like slash that had traveled to the group of soldiers and cut straight through them like their armor didn't exist. He had repeated the motion at least ten more times before he had sheathed his weapon. Within that second, the entire group of soldiers all dropped to the ground, completely eviscerated. Kanshin simply let out a sigh, before continuing on the road as though the encounter never happened.

" _I must say I am quite_ _surprised_ _, Kanshin."_ Uratamashi spoke, impressed. " _While you may not be the strongest wielder that I have known in terms of raw power, I do not recall a wielder who has been able to control those waves of hatred as precisely as yourself in such a short span of time."_

" _It's good to see that the training I've spent the last three years doing has paid off. I just hope that it will be enough."_ Kanshin said, dismissively.

" _As long as you don't go charging in like a madman, you should be able to continue to expand on your powers and exponentially grow in strength and experience. If you play it correctly, at the rate you are going, by the time the big three generals manages to find you and force you into a confrontation, you should be strong enough to at least force them into a battle of attrition."_ Uratamashi declared.

" _I hope you are right. Because I'll need all the power I can get since I have no idea as to how many enemies I'll possibly end up making, showing up as the new wielder of you, if even half of the stories you have told me about you is true."_

While Kanshin was contemplating on how he was going to handle business in the Capital and what people he would need to watch out, he managed to finally to get to a clearing within the road he was on. Kanshin now had a clear sight of the Capital that was just ahead.

 **Author's Note: And that's it for this chapter. In the next chapter, we will be going covering Kanshin entrance to the Capital. I hope you enjoyed and I shall see you guys on the next chapter.**


	3. Kill the First Impressions

**Author Note:**

 **My apologies for not updating this sooner. I had pretty much hit the equivalent of a brick wall and I only recently managed to climb my way past it. With any luck, I should be able to get back into the thick of things with a bit more regularly scheduled updates.**

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 **The Storm Master 567:** **To be honest** **, I'm one of those types that prefers to let the story itself tell you where a person stands in strength. However, to give you an idea, keep in mind that Kanshin killed a Disaster Class Dangerbeast easily and without injury. In the cannon story, Tatsumi barely managed to defeat Apeman, which was also a Disaster Class DangerBeast, even with Incursio's help, on his own.**

 **Kill the First Impressions**

Kanshin woke up at around dawn. He had decided to make camp inside a cave last night. It was closeby a massive lake that had quite a bit of wide open plain that, after a few meters, was surrounded by forest. As he was chewing on some bread for his morning breakfast, he noticed that a crow was staring at him within close proximity. It wasn't really doing anything in particular, just staring.

" _It's probably just hungry. Meh, I'm not all that hungry this morning anyway."_

Kanshin decided to go ahead and toss a small chunk of the bread close by. The crow immediately went to the bread and began to nibble away at it.

With that dealt with, Kuramoto decided to get moving and heads to the Capital. Once the gates were within his sights, he got a very ominous feeling. Thanks to the years he had spent training with his Teigu's abilities, he picked up the ability to be able to read emotions, both from a person to person level and from a general mood perspective.

" _...I haven't even entered the Capital yet and I can already feel that the place radiates negative emotions. It must be far worse than any story or tale that's been told if it's this bad..."_

Once he had gotten inside the Capital itself, the original feeling he got was _much_ worse. Whatever positive impressions Kanshin might have had with the Capital's exterior beauty was almost immediately destroyed. It was though the entire Capital was radiating overwhelming negativity. Despite being to all kinds of different places during the past three years he had spent traveling, no place he had experienced was as bad as this.

" _No wonder so many people say that the Capital is a rotten place. If I can feel how horrible it is just by walking around, I don't even want to think about how bad the situation must be."_

As he was walking around, many people were giving him looks of suspicion and skepticism. No doubt that they could tell that Kanshin was an outsider and if even a handful of the stories regarding the Capital were true that's he has heard of within the last few years were true, he wasn't expecting a warm welcome. Regardless, he continued onward to his destination, ignoring the looks.

While he doubts that they have noticed yet, but Kanshin quickly found out that he was being followed. He had noticed a cloaked figure, just on the edge of his peripheral vision and thanks to his empathetic abilities, he managed to pinpoint the person and zero in on the person's position and pieced together that they have been on his tail for quite some time. He was out in the open and he didn't feel like making himself into a target just yet, so he stayed quiet, pretending to be oblivious to that fact.

After about a half hour of exploring, he managed to find one of the places that he was looking for. It was an army recruitment center.

" _I don't think they will have the information I want within that place specifically, but it will be worth checking out since they probably will know where to find it."_ Kanshin thought to himself.

He stepped forward to enter the building and it was at this point that the mysterious figure that's been tailing Kanshin finally decided to step in.

"Listen, I wouldn't join the army if I was you. If you understood the true nature of this place, you wouldn't be found within a mile of it." A female voice had spoken.

"Give me one reason as to why I should so much as give the time of day to the person that's been tailing me ever since I've arrived here." Kanshin replied with hostility.

The cloaked person simply chuckled.

"My. My. Aren't we feeling hostile today? But I suppose your reaction is not surprising given the state of things. I'll tell you what you need to know, but first, how about we discuss this over some drinks?"

"You haven't given me a reason as to why I should trust you." Kanshin replied.

The cloaked person simply sighed, seeing that the person before her wasn't exactly the cooperative type and unfortunately, she didn't have any leverage on him to make use of. So, she instead pulled the hood off her head., revealing her appearance to Kanshin. She had pale skin, long auburn hair with butterfly headphones resting on her head and red eyes.

"My name is Chelsea. What is yours?" Chelsea introduced herself.

"It's Kanshin." Kanshin cautiously answered.

"So...now that we know each other. Would you be interested in a drink? I can explain everything, but we need a secure place to talk." Chelsea added.

"Very well, I'll come along...for now." Kanshin said after giving it some thought, deciding to give Chelsea the benefit of the doubt.

The two of them were talking together in silence for about five minutes. They eventually managed to reach a bar that was a bit off the main roads. The place itself was fairly quiet and not too many people were around. But the place still had plenty of customers. The two of them took a seat to around a corner of the bar. Shortly afterwards, a waitress came by.

"What can I get you two?"

"I'll take a smoothie." Chelsea spoke up. "Oh, and be sure to grab something good for the traveler here. He's been on the road for quite some time."

"It must be obvious that I've been on the road if a stranger could so easily figure that out." Kanshin said.

"Between the backpack you've been carrying and you wondering all over the Capital for about a half hour, yes it's pretty obvious." Chelsea commented. "By the way, did you make it to the Capital on foot perchance?"

"For the most part yes. Traveling by carriage or horseback is fairly expensive and I typically don't stay in one place for too long." Kanshin replied.

The waitress came by with the drinks in question. Chelsea was enjoying hers. Kanshin took a sip of his and almost immediately choked. It was alcoholic and fairly strong at that.

"Not a very big fan of alcohol I take it?" Chelsea said, amused by Kanshin's reaction.

"Obviously not. I never understood what exactly is supposed to be so great about it." Kanshin replied, trying to get the taste out of his mouth.

"It's one way to help folks relax and forget about their troubles." Chelsea answered. "It is something that should be common sense unless of course, you don't drink because you aren't old enough to." Chelsea joked around.

"First, I am 20 so yes, I can drink alcohol without any problems. Two, I have had alcohol in the past and I _still_ didn't like it."

"Anyways, you've got your drink. What business do you have bringing me here?" Kanshin asked, trying to move the conversation forward.

Chelsea's expression turned serious as she began to explain away.

"I'll get straight to the point. The Empire is rotten to the core, to the extent of which you have no idea."

Kanshin just simply sighed at the statement Chelsea made.

"You're not the first person that has told me that nor will you be the last. I'm familiar with the horror stories of the Capital. Please don't tell me that _that's_ the reason why you dragged me here."

"Is that so?" Chelsea replied. "You could have fooled me, considering that you were on your way to sign up for the army."

"Tell me, Chelsea." Kanshin countered. "At what point did I say that I was joining the army?"

Chelsea stopped for a second. It took a moment for her to realize that he had not once said that he was looking to join. That was a conclusion that she had drawn on her own.

"If you really aren't joining, then why were you heading to the recruitment office?" Chelsea asked, now curious as to what business he had with the army.

"My reasons are my own." Kanshin said in a dismissive manner.

"Oh, come now, there's no need to play hard to get. You can tell me~." Cheslea said in a suggestive tone.

"Tell you what." Kanshin answered back. "I'll tell you what business I have with the Imperial Army as soon as you tell me as to whose side you are on."

"Side?" Chelsea repeated. "You have quite the imagination. W-"

"You really must take me for a fool, Chelsea." Kanshin interrupted, his eyes narrowing. "I may not be the smartest guy around, but I am not oblivious to my surroundings or circumstances. You don't carry the typical apathetic attitude that the average citizen does from what little I have seen so far. Not to mention, you've been making a considerable effort to try and pry information out of me. Based off that, there's really only one conclusion that can be drawn. You are working for either the Empire or the Revolutionary Army. So, I'll ask again. Whose side are you on?"

Chelsea began to sweat as she realized that Kanshin was very suspicious of her. And based on his earlier remarks, there's a very good chance that he might become hostile judging from his previous actions.

" _Shit! He is onto me. I don't want to blow my cover, but at the same time, I'm quite certain that he's a capable warrior and he might be a valuable addition to the Revolutionary Army. What do I do!?"_

"That's what I thought." Kanshin said, taking Chelsea's silence as her answer. "If you don't want me prying into your business, then stay out of mine."

"Okay. Then can you at least give me a hint as to why you decided to come all this way to the Capital?" Chelsea asked, desperately trying to get something. "Because if you are aware of the corruption like you say you are, it seems to be a complete waste of time to be here from what I'm seeing."

" _*Sigh*. I have the feeling that she will not drop the subject until I give an answer. And I'd rather not have a possibly spy on my tail if it can be helped. Otherwise, I will have the attention of one side or the another and that's something I'd rather not have to deal with for now."_

"Fine. Since it seems you will not leave me alone until you have an answer and it will be a pain to have a stalker after me. So, I will tell you this much: My interest in the Imperial Army is for unconventional reasons."

"Unconventional reasons?" Chelsea repeated.

"If you want to know anything more than that, you will have to actually prove that you can be trusted." Kanshin added before Chelsea could press further.

"I suppose I can't really argue with that reasoning." Chelsea resigned, thinking that it wasn't smart to pry any further. "You seem to be considerably untrusting of others, way more so than what most would expect from someone would resides outside the Capital."

"If the past several years that I have been alive have taught me anything, it's to trust nobody until they give you a reason to do so."

"Well, if you really have that mentality ingrained into you, then I don't have to worry about you dying on me anytime soon at least." Chelsea replied.

Chelsea got up from her seat, having finished her drink.

"Thank you for entertaining my words. Good luck in whatever plans you have and do watch your back."

"I will." Kanshin replied.

Having nothing else to say, Chelsea had decided to leave Kanshin to his own devices.

" _I'll need to report this to my superiors. I don't know just how much of a fighter he is, but if he managed to make it all the way to the Capital on foot, he's probably a capable fighter. He might make a good addition to the Revolutionary Army."_ Chelsea thought.

Meanwhile, Kanshin's mind wondering over the information that he had gotten about Chelsea.

" _Based on what I could tell, it didn't seem like she was trying to deceive me as far as my empathetic abilities goes. Judging from how she was constantly bringing up the corruption of the Empire, while it is still possible she may be working for the Empire, it's more likely she's a part of the Revolutionary Army. I'll need to keep an eye on her. I may not trust either side and I'll sure as hell will fight tooth and nail to avoid picking a side, there's a good chance I may be forced to make a decision later down the road."_

* * *

After Kanshin finished up his business with Chelsea, he headed back to where he came and was now, once more, in front of the recruiting office. He took another look around to make sure that he wasn't being tailed this time around. After a minute of searching, he figured that he was in the clear and went inside. The place itself looked like it was decently busy. No doubt filled with several people who did want to join the ranks in the hopes of improving their lives, regardless of how vain the hope was. Kanshin stepped towards the closest available recruiter.

"Greetings." Kanshin greeted.

"Yes. Yes. If you want to join the army, then just fill out this application here." The recruiter said, handing him a sheet of paper, not even bothering to look at Kanshin.

"Actually, that's not why I am here."

The recruiter now looked at Kanshin, a bit surprised by his words.

"I'm in search of a relative of mine that's in the Imperial Army. I've last heard of them being assigned to a colonel's unit and I haven't heard from them ever since. I want to be able to find them, to see if they are still alive." Kanshin explained, deceiving the recruiter.

"Oh...I see." The recruiter said. "I doubt I will be able to help you out with that. But there's an administrative office that's closer to the palace that's in charge with delivering and archiving written orders for all, except to those who answer directly to the Emperor themselves."

"Can you show where the administrative office is?"

"Yeah, it's right here." The recruiter said, giving him a map and placing some markers on it. One which indicated where they were in relation to the Capital and the other where the administrative office was at.

"Thanks."

With his business complete, he left the recruitment office with the map in tow. Once he got outside the building, Kanshin started to feel ill from the emotions that permeated the air.

" _I've only even been inside the Capital not even two hours and I'm already feeling pretty nauseous. I'll grab some supplies for tonight and head back to the camp that I made. I can head to the Administrative Office tonight to grab what I am looking for."_

Feeling that staying within the Capital for too long was going to lead to problems, he exited the Capital for the time being. He made his way back to the camp site he had set up with his newfound materials. It was mainly food and some tools to help maintain his weapons and to build a safe place to rest, away from the prying eyes of the Empire. While he began to think about where and how he wanted to build his new home, he had spotted the crow that he had fed this morning. This time, he was back with some friends.

" _More of them have shown up…wait a minute. I think I may have an idea. I'll need to double check, but if crows are as smart as I remember to be, then I can use this to my advantage."_

* * *

 _ **Later that night..**_ _._

Kanshin made his way towards the Administrative Office. The lack of lights suggested that the place looked like it was closed for the evening which was perfect. After doing some rooftop jumping, he had managed to find a back entrance to the building. Of course, as expected, the door was locked.

" _It's a good thing that I have a way to get in."_

Kanshin took a moment to relax himself and channel some of the negative emotions that was in the air into him. After a few more moments of concentrating, he focused said energy into his body and he walked to the door and went right through it. Once he was through, he let go of his concentration and started to breathe heavily.

" _Sheez, even with borrowing energy from outside sources, that still takes quite a bit to do. I may to incorporate using that technique into my training regime."_

After pulling himself together, he wasted no more time and began to search the area for the documents he was hoping to find. It took around twenty minutes of searching, but Kanshin found what he was looking for. The entire list of people that Colonel Torio had with her when she had attacked his home five years ago. Unfortunately, he only had names to go off and he had no idea as to who was still alive or not, but he could find a means of figuring that out later.

" _Perfect. I got what I came for. Now, let's get out of here."_

With that, he quickly left the building from the back entrance that he came from and quickly made his way back onto the rooftops.

* * *

 _ **A few days later…**_

Night Raid. A name that strikes fear into many citizens of the Captial. A group of assassins that's been gaining an increasing notoriety within the Capital. They are infamous for their specific targeting of high profile people and their tendency to strike at night without warning.

Four of their members were currently eating lunch, discussing their next plan of attack. Two of them can be recognized as they have wanted posters nearly everywhere in the Capital. Najenda, the leader of Night Raid and Akame, the group's best assassin. The two other members that were unknown to the rest of the Capital that were present were Leone who the group's hand to hand fighter and Tatsumi, their newest member.

"Our targets are Gamal, an oil merchant and Ogre, Captain of the Imperial Guard." Leone began to brief. According to our client, Gamel has been paying a large number of bribes to Ogre. Each time Gamal commits a crime, Ogre creates a fabrication and frames someone else for it. The client's husband was framed and executed as a result of them doing business." She then pulled out a bag of money on the table. "The client has paid in full."

"That's…. quite a bit." Tatsumi said, surprised by the amount of money the bag held.

"I caught the scent of venereal disease." Leone stated, her grip on her arms tightening. "She likely sold her body many times to get this amount."

"Have you confirmed the client's claims?" Najenda asked.

"I've overheard them discussing a bribe within an attic. They are guilty." Leone replied.

"Very well. Then Night Raid accepts the contract. We won't need such abhorrent garbage in our new nation. We shall deliver divine punishment." Najenda announced.

"Gamal should be easy to take out, but Ogre is a different story." Leone brought forth. "Ogre is also known as 'The Demon' due to his skills with a sword. Most of the criminals inside the Capital fear him. He is frequently seen with his group of lackeys or otherwise is in the guard barracks. When he does take the bribes from Gamal, it's within Gamal's private quarters. During his off time, he rarely strays far from garrison and is usually drinking near main street. All of the locations which are near the palace itself."

"It sounds like the only shot we have is during his days off." Tatsumi deduced.

"Correct." Najenda agreed. "However, due to the tight security around the areas surrounding the palace, it will extremely risky to send Akame on this particular job."

"Can't we wait for Mine and the others to return?" Akame suggested.

"We have no idea as to when they will return from their job." Leone pointed out.

"In that case..." Tatsumi said, slamming down his hand on the table. "We'll have to take care of this one ourselves!"

"Oh? Are you saying that you will take on Ogre yourself?" Najenda said with a mix of amusement and surprise by Tatsumi's comment.

"Umm…." Tatsumi started.

"That's exactly what I heard." Leone said, putting her arm around Tatsumi. "There's no taking it back now. I hope you are ready to take responsibility for those words."

"Of course, I am." Tatsumi finally replied, shaking Leone off. "I've got this, I'll deal with Ogre."

"You are not ready to able to deal with someone like Ogre as you are." Akame said, surprising Tatsumi. "As you are now, your arrogance will get you killed."

"Even so, while we are sitting around discussing this, there's the possibility that more people are within their sights to accuse." Tatsumi replied. "There's no way I can stand around and do nothing while there are others who may become victims. I don't…. want anyone else to lose their loved ones by a meaningless death."

All three of them had gone quiet from Tatsumi's little speech. They could understand how he felt due to losing his friends in a similarly harsh manner. But they were also surprised by his resolve and that he still wanted to go through with this despite the risks involved.

"Your resolve is admirable, Tatsumi. Very well, unless there are any further objections, Leone and Akame will deal with Gamal while Tatsumi will handle Ogre." Najenda spoke.

Taking their silence as acceptance, Najenda decided to conclude the discussion.

"Alright. I'd recommend that the three of you at least get a nap before you head out tonight." Najenda finished.

Unknown to the entirety of Night Raid, someone else had some business with one of their targets tonight.

* * *

Kanshin had been scouting out the area ever since nightfall had hit, taking occasional breaks to keep himself from getting sick like he did a few days ago. To keep his identity a mystery, he decided to ditch his usual garments for and padded black trench coat that came with a hood as well as black boots. To make sure that his facial features were hidden he also kept his lower face covered by a black cloth.

" _I will figure out where he is at eventually. If my sources are reliable, he usually spends his free time drinking so I should be able to see him soon enough."_

After a little bit more searching, he had finally found who he was looking for.

" _Found you, Ogre. Now all I need to do is grab your attention."_ Kanshin thought as he stepped down from the rooftops.

* * *

"Nothing like a good drink to conclude an interrogation where I can let loose!" Ogre shouted out into the night.

As Ogre was happily making his way back towards his home for a well-earned rest, he felt killing intent. He turned to the direction of where the killing intent was coming from to find that a cloaked person was glaring at him. Ogre took a quick glance around and saw that nobody else had noticed the killing intent. It was targeted very specifically at him. Ogre decided to approach the person, who in response began to make his way towards an alleyway.

Tatsumi, who had garbed himself in a white hooded cloak, was observing Ogre and was waiting to make his move. To say that he was surprised when he saw Ogre was heading to one on his own.

" _What the.? Did he see something? I should follow him to see what's going on."_ Tatsumi thought to himself, making his way to the rooftops.

* * *

Ogre had entered the alleyway. He turned to find the person that was glaring back at him. He was alone and seemingly, was unarmed. The only thing that Ogre could distinguish of the person out was the pair of blue eyes that was glaring back at him.

"Oh? That's quite the glare that you have." Ogre spoke up. "Let me guess, you must be a part of Night Raid."

"No. I'm here for revenge." Kanshin announced. "Five years ago, you and the rest of the ragtag gang of 'soldiers' came and massacred my home. I've come to repay you for your 'hospitality'."

"Five years ago?" Ogre repeated. "…. Oh! I now remember. So, you're a survivor from that town. Kinda hard to believe that someone actually managed to live from that."

"If that's the case…."

"Then this is perfect! What a night! Two troublesome pests to interrogate in one night? This is perfect. I'll drag you off to the torture chambers and with this, I'll be accepted back into the General Torio's ranks!" Ogre eagerly replied, pulling out his sword.

With that, Ogre wasted no time in charging at Kanshin. He hadn't bothered to make a single movement towards Ogre. Ogre was about to make an overhead swing at Kanshin when he was blown back by an unknown force. Once Ogre got back up, the entire environment around him had changed. The alleyway was replaced by simply an endless dark purple void.

"What the hell?" Ogre said, his face filled with shock.

"Did you think that you could destroy so many lives and just simply walk away from the consequences?" Kanshin asked, his eyes glowing and now matching the color of the void he created.

"I don't know what the hell you just did, but I'm ending it now." Ogre declared, composing himself.

Before he could get into another stance. Something had grabbed onto his arm. The moment it did, Ogre had screamed out in pain instantly dropping his weapon. His mouth was soon covered and all of his limbs were held into place. Each place that was being grabbed onto was fueled by the same searing pain as the first. Ogre looked down and was horrified by what he saw. He saw what looked like to be human bodies, but the only thing that could be seen of them was their muscle, everything else, from their skin to their eyeballs, was removed from them.

"You have may forgotten the names and faces of the people you slaughtered. But they have not forgotten you. They will tear you asunder until their wrath is completely satiated." Kanshin decreed.

The things began to pull and began to drag him into the abyss, his pain amplifying as his body began to sink.

* * *

Tatsumi had no idea what was going on. One moment, Ogre looked to be about ready to attack the person. The next, an ominous aura comes out of the mysterious person and Ogre stops in his tracks, dropping his weapon. Ogre hadn't so much as moved since. Then, after about 30 seconds had passed, Ogre just simply dropped to the ground in complete silence.

" _What the hell did he do!?"_ Tatsumi wondered in fear.

" _Excellent. All I have to do is wait for the guards to come and find him. While I'd prefer to take my time to repay all of the targets with the same pain that they brought, I doubt I'll get that luxury for all of them, so I'll take advantage of the ones that I can while the opportunity is present. Now to deal with the bystander."_ Kanshin thought, checking to make sure that Ogre would stay down. He then directed his attention towards the person that he felt was observing him.

"Come out of hiding. I know you are there." Kanshin called out.

Tatsumi had flinched knowing that he had been spotted. Tatsumi was honestly terrified, the very idea that he could outright incapacitate a person without even so much as touching them did not sit well with him. Not to mention, the horrendous aura that he had emitted made him seriously want to run as far away from him as possible. However, the aura that he had a moment ago was gone and there wasn't any killing intent coming from him. So, Tatsumi collected himself and decided to reveal himself.

"Judging by how you were observing Ogre and I the whole time, I think it's safe to assume that you planned on killing him, correct?" Kanshin said as Tatsumi revealed himself.

Tatsumi simply nodded in confirmation.

"Well, there's no point to it now. Captain Ogre is currently trapped in an endless cycle of torture with only death being the means of escaping it. To kill as of now would simply be a mercy, something which the both of us can agree is something he does not deserve." Kanshin explained.

"Besides, Ogre is _my_ kill. And I say he will not die until he is broken to a point where he will be on his hand and knees begging for death." Kanshin ominously declared.

Tatsumi nodded rapidly to show that he understood. After seeing what he did to Ogre, he did _not_ want to go risk antagonizing him.

"Well, Ogre is no longer a problem. Do watch your back in this city." Kanshin said as he turned to leave the area.

"Wait!" Tatsumi called out to him. "Just who are you?" He asked, trying his luck to get a name.

"Courtesy dictates that you introduce yourself before asking someone their name." Kanshin replied.

"My name is Tatsumi." Tatsumi answered.

"Well, Tatsumi, here's some advice. Don't be so quick in giving away your name like that, especially if you don't have a disguise on. You'll be much more easily discovered by the Empire that way." Kanshin replied.

Tatsumi's eyes widen as he realized his mistake.

"But since you asked, to answer your question. I suppose if you want to call be something, call me….Aome." Kanshin answered.

"Aome?" Tatsumi repeated. _"As in the color of his eyes?"_

Kanshin simply nodded.

"Farewell, Tatsumi." Kanshin said. He then jumped to the rooftops and made his way towards the cover of night.

Tatusmi, seeing that the person responsible for taking down Ogre was gone and that Ogre was still there, muttering incoherent nonsense, he decided to leave as well. He had to report what he had just learned.

* * *

It took some time, but eventually he managed to get back to the base of Night Raid. Every member, both known and unknown were now present. They were all eager to here as to how Tatsumi's first mission as their new member.

"So, Tatsumi, how did your first mission go?" Najenda asked once Tatsumi arrived.

"Ogre...has been taken care of." Tatsumi said.

"What do you mean?" Najenda asked, noticing the hesitation in Tatsumi's answer.

"Someone else managed to get to him first. Ogre tried to attack him but before he could get a strike in, Ogre was blown back. Once he got back up, he just dropped his weapon and collapsed shortly afterwards." Tatsumi began to explain.

"The mysterious man then called out to me, figuring out that I was watching. Afterwards he explained that he was completely trapped in a cycle of torture and to kill him at that point would be a mercy. Considering that he managed to incapacitate him without so much as touching him, I figured it would not be wise to try and kill Ogre at that stage."

" _Interesting….Ogre won't be an issue if that's true, plus the sorry state he's left in will send a much stronger message than if he was dead. Still, that kind of situation sounds familiar..."_ Najenda thought.

"Can you tell anything about this person who attacked Ogre?" Najenda asked.

"Not much." Tatsumi said. "He called himself Aome. He was completely cloaked in a black hooded trench coat with black cloth covering most of his face. The only thing that I could see that could identify him was his blue eyes."

"I see..." Najenda said, processing everything she heard.

"But there was something strange about him..." Tatsumi went on.

Najenda gave Tatsumi a look that says: 'Go on'.

"His eyes changed to a dark purple, almost black color just before Ogre was blown back. Then, I felt cold when I was observing. Not cold in the sense of me freezing, but like as though all joy and happiness had disappeared and only sadness and despair was left…." Tatsumi said, now shaking from remembering that feeling. "It felt like I was re experiencing Sayo and Ieyasu's deaths."

Najenda stood there for a moment, taking in the information that Tatsumi had given her.

" _Placing someone in a psychological prison, feeling like positive emotions vanish….I know I have heard of that somewhere..."_

"… _!"_

Najenda's cigar that she had in her mouth dropped immediately as she finally remembered where she had heard of those effects before.

"This...could be a problem." Najenda muttered, a mix of both surprise and worry breaking through her usually calm demeanor.

The others, seeing their boss's typical demeanor being broken were both now afraid themselves as well as curious as to what it is that unnerve her so much.

"What's wrong, Boss? Did you figure something out?" Leone asked.

"Tatsumi…you just came across the wielder of one of the most dangerous Teigu that's been ever created." Najenda stated.

"Teigu?" Tatsumi repeated, confused.

"They are powerful weapons forged by the First Emperor. There were 48 of them that were created in total, with about half of them lost as a result of the Civil War that occurred about 500 years ago." Bulat explained.

"But considering what we are going to have to eventually face, it's quite the bold claim to say what Tatsumi encountered would be one of the most dangerous." Bulat continued, expecting an answer.

"I'm looking through the known Teigus now." Lubbock said as he was flipping through a book that had all of the known Teigus within it. "There's Demon God's Manifestation: Demon's Extract, Gaia's Wrath: Terraform and Thunder God's Rage: Adramelech **.** All three of which are in current possession of the Three Teigu Generals and all of which we know little of." Lubbockk began to list off list of as he went through them.

"Wait a second, there's one more that is listed here." Lubbock added, seeing that he missed the last page of the book.

He read the page, then he dropped the book, his eyes also showing fear as he had realized what Teigu Najenda was referring to.

" _You can't be serious. This is the Teigu wielder we have to deal with!?"_ Lubbock shouted in his head.

The rest of the group was now severely worried as Lubbock gave an identical response as Najenda did. What kind of Teigu could cause both of them to freeze up like that? His curiosity getting the better of him, Tatsumi picked up the book Lubbock had dropped and read the page that he was on.

The page itself did not have any photos or anything that describes what the Teigu looks like. There were only two things that the page had. A name and a very small description of the Teigu.

"Wraith's Avatar: Uratamashi." Tatsumi read out.

* * *

 **And that's it for this chapter. I hope you enjoyed and I shall see you guys on the next chapter.**


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